Sia, The Greatest

MPC NY's Adrian Seery Grades Sia's Praised Music Video "The Greatest"

Sia’s latest video, “The Greatest,” broke in mid-September and was met with immediate critical acclaim. Directed by Radical Media’s Daniel Askill, edited by Lorin Askill and shot by Director of Photography Mathieu Plainfosse, it was graded at MPC New York by Senior Colorist Adrian Seery and includes Flame work by Senior Flame Artist Luc Job.

The video marks another chapter in the ongoing collaboration between the artist, the director and MPC. Previously Adrian performed color grading on Sia’s videos “Alive” and “Chandelier,” and also graded the untitled, in-concert performance video that’s had concertgoers at the artist’s current North American and European tour talking and tweeting.

“The Greatest” has drawn attention to its sobering statement about the shooting in Orlando in which 49 people were killed at the nightclub Pulse. It opens to a black screen and the hashtag #WeAreYourChildren, then proceeds to show Sia’s featured dancer, Maddie Ziegler, as she frantically sets free a group of 49 dancers who appear to flee a darkened, foreboding structure before the video concludes with all of them back behind bars. Rolling Stone called it“cathartic,” while MTV News said “it’ll make you cry rainbow tears.”

“We’ve worked on so many of these together now that we’re a well-oiled machine,” says Adrian of MPC’s contribution to “The Greatest.” “I enjoyed this one particularly for the long Steadicam shots spanning several lighting setups. In these cases, my job is to make all transitions seamless and hide my changes where they won't be noticed. Our goal throughout was in keeping Maddie the focus and digging various supporting characters out of the shadows here and there.”